Objections?
So which line for which purpose?
This is where it all gets very messy.
The majority of the stuff that came before this section was factual. But when we get to the critical decision about what line to buy for the type of fishing you do, it turns out to be of limited use. If you read the thread behind this post, you'll see that we have so far failed to arrive at a set of prescriptions.
The main reason we find ourselves here is that apart from information of profile shapes, there is precisely zero objective information on the what lines actually DO. You will never find proper objective testing by the manufacturer on the differences claimed for their lines. They're heavy on subjective descriptions -
- Long front taper turns over flies with delicacy and precision
- Extended head and back taper increases loop control when carrying long lengths of line
- Long head for ultimate casting control
- Front biased weight to load rods at close range
- but are entirely absent of objective measurement. Because there is no doubt that if a manufacturer COULD quantify these claims, they absolutely would, we must assume that these claims can't be quantified.
So, what we arrive at are a lot of subjective qualifiers and opinion.
The biggest qualifier appears to be how good you are at casting. When you get really good you may be able to feel the subjective differences in the more specialist lines.
But conversely as you progress there are possibly some line profiles that are slightly better than others. A heavier forward weighted head seems to help the beginner as the caster can feel the load a little easier for example.
One thing we haven't touched on - because this is about lines - are rods. We have assumed that the rod manufacturer get their line weightings right. This is by no means a given, it's far more of a subjective affair than you would imagine.
All this leads to a conclusion which is "just try a few lines" to see what best fits your casting action, ability and the rod that you have. Well that's great if you can borrow a lot of lines but not great if you have to buy them to find out.
For what it's worth, as an average angler here's my takeaway for the average caster and for general, do-it-all fishing.
1. If you have a #5 weight rod, buy a true #5 weight line. You can mess around with under and over weighting when you know more about what you're doing
2. Buy a WF line, it can do everything.
3. Buy a line with a decent front taper - say 12+' - this allows good line turnover and less splash.
4. Buy a line with a longish body and back taper as measured beyond the standard 30'. I'd guess at a further 20'. This means that you can aerialise more line if you want to cast further and have the ability to do so while also giving you a line that you can mend on the water and stops any of the hinging effect you'd get with a more shooting head style line.
I'd also add that it seems quite important to know where that critical 30' point is on your line.
Remember, that's the amount of line outside your rod tip that the manufacturer reckons hits the standard for your rod. Anything more or less is overlaying or underlining, so you'd think it would be marked on your line in flashing lights. Measure it out and mark it with a sharpie if your line isn't two-tone. Personally I put another mark 10' further up to that way I see it in my hand too.
If you have a 9' rod, a 12' leader, 30' of line outside the tip plus another 10' or so to shoot, you're casting 61' from your feet. That's almost always more than enough.
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